The business and culture of our digital lives, from the L.A. Times

CES: Sony tries to spark a new generation of filmmakers with Make.Believe

January 6, 2010 | 10:51
am

Sony tonight is set to unveil a series of 11 online videos aimed at inspiring viewers to stop watching and start making their own movies.

The spots, which will roll out after the company's news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, are part of its Make.Believe campaign and feature artists and independent filmmakers who used Sony cameras over the years for their projects. The one above, for example, is a profile of Jessica Sanders, a director who made "After Innocence," a documentary that won the Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2005 about prisoners who were exonerated by DNA tests. (Sanders also produced and edited the spot herself.)

Over the next few months, Sony plans to solicit people to submit their videos, a selection of which would be playable on Crackle, its online video channel; YouTube; and PlayStation Home, the company's online venue for its PlayStation 3 consoles; and elsewhere.

The idea, according to Sony Spokeswoman Marcy Cohen, is "believe that anything you can imagine, you can make real." Preferably with a $1,200 Sony HDR-XR500V Handycam.